the pursuit of gain, but working with enthusiasm on his own perceptions
of what is great in humanity and fitting in a nation, has for many
years devoted himself to the task of gathering and grouping together
the great men who were living in the early part of the present
century.... This is of a verity a picture of great men--men whose
instinct it was to work for the world and fight against misery: some of
them wealthy and some of them poor; with visions perchance of wealth
to come, but still working for the world's welfare as the only path
through which to ensure their own,--the race of path-finders who are
ever setting copies for the English nation to work by, and thus gain
more results by the development of national energy. Accompanying the
picture, which contains upwards of fifty portraits, some full figures,
and some more or less hidden, but all admirably grouped, there is a
volume, by Mr. Walker's son, giving a brief memoir of the salient
points of each individual history; this also is well executed, and it
forms a useful book of reference for those who would know more than the
picture can tell.... Grateful are we to men like Mr. Walker, who has
thus gathered together in groups the world's workers, with their images
and superscriptions, that men may know their benefactors, and render to
their memory that justice which was too rarely accorded to their lives.
So, all honour to the work of both the father and the son, the picture
and the book, in teaching the men of the present what they owe to men
of the past.
MECHANICS' MAGAZINE.
Perhaps no class of men have deserved more of their country and
of mankind than the great inventors and discoverers in astronomy,
chemistry, engineering and other departments of science; yet very
little is known of many of them in proportion to the acknowledged
good which has resulted from their labours. We possess works of art
commemorating the achievements of heroes in the field, and of statesmen
in parliament, but until now no work of any magnitude has ever been
executed in honour of men whose doings have laid the foundation
of our commercial prosperity. We are, however, able to state that
this can no longer be said, as Mr. Walker, of 64, Margaret-street,
Cavendish-square, has, after an extended period of labour, produced
an engraving which must remain an enduring record of our greatest era
in science--the early part of the present century. At that epoch of
time, steam, under the hands of Watt, Symington, and Trevithick, was
commencing its marvellous career; astronomy and chemistry began to
reveal their long-hidden secrets; while the discovery of vaccination,
by Jenner, had already rescued thousands from death to enjoy the
blessings left as a legacy by many a silent worker in science....
We may fairly state that we have never seen so large a body of men
arranged in a group, where it is necessary that all should, in a
measure, present their faces turned towards the spectator, so free from
that stiffness which is the general fault of works of this class. For
this, great praise is due to John Gilbert, by whom the original picture
(drawn by J. F. Skill and W. Walker) was designed. The engraving has
been executed by W. Walker and George Zobel; while in order to render
the work complete, a series of memoirs have been drawn up by Mr. W.
Walker, Jun., and furnished with a short introduction by Mr. Robert
Hunt, F.R.S., keeper of the Mining Records. We can only now say of the
book, that while many of the memoirs are necessarily brief, one, that
of Trevithick, contains the most information yet published regarding
that eminent engineer.
BUILDING NEWS.
We are glad to be able to inform our readers, that a large engraving
has just been completed by Mr. Walker, of 64, Margaret-street,
Cavendish-square, in honour of the men of science who have done so
much towards the establishment of our present commercial prosperity.
This work, which may well be called historical, represents fifty-one
illustrious men, living in the early part of the present century,
assembled in the Upper Library of the Royal Institution. The picture is
divided into three groups, and comprises authentic portraits of our
greatest inventors and discoverers in astronomy, chemistry, engineering
machinery, and other departments of science.... The grouping of so
large a number of figures must have been a difficult task; this has,
however, been successfully accomplished by John Gilbert, the designer
of the original picture, who, by a skilful combination of various
attitudes, has given both grace and ease to the figures represented.
The engraving has been executed by William Walker and George Zobel,
and the greatest care seems to have been taken to secure faithful and
authentic likenesses. The work is rendered complete by a series of
well-written memoirs, compiled to accompany the engraving. This book is
also published separately, and we should think there would be many who
would buy the memoirs although unable to purchase the engraving.
W. DAVY & SON, PRINTERS, 8 GILBERT STREET, W.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The portable observatories used in this expedition were constructed
by Smeaton the engineer.--_Wild's History of the Roy. Soc._ vol. 2, p.
37.
[2] Mr. Samuel Bentham had amongst his other contrivances for shaping
wood, described one in his patent of 1793, for shaping the shells of
blocks, but with a singular degree of candour and generosity, he at
once acknowledged the superiority of Brunel's machinery.--_Smiles's
Industrial Biography._ London, 1863.
[3] _Quarterly Review_, October, 1858.
[4] For Maudslay's connection with this lock, see Maudslay.
[5] In the dedication of the 'Synopsis Plantarum Orbis Novi,' Roberto
Brownio, Britanniarum Gloriæ atque Ornamento, totam Botanices Scientiam
ingenio mirifico complectenti.
[6] At eleven years of age, Brunel's love of tools was so great that he
once pawned his hat to buy them; and at the age of twelve he is said to
have constructed different articles with as much precision as a regular
workman.
[7] Brunel had scarcely left the shores of France when he found that
he had lost his passport. This difficulty he, however, got over by
borrowing a passport from a fellow-traveller, which he copied so
exactly in every particular, down to the very seal, that it was
deemed proof against all scrutiny. He had hardly completed his task
when the American vessel was stopped by a French frigate, and all the
passengers were ordered to show their passports. Brunel, with perfect
self-possession, was the first to show his, and not the slightest doubt
was aroused as to its authenticity.
[8] The total number of machines employed in the various operations of
making a ship's block by this method was forty-four, and 16,000 blocks
of various sizes could be turned out in the course of a year.
[9] Dr. Cartwright was the younger brother of Major John Cartwright,
the well-known English Reformer of the reign of George III., to whose
memory a bronze statue is erected in Burton Crescent, London.
[10] Dr. Cartwright was married twice. His first wife died in 1785, and
in 1790 he married the youngest daughter of the Rev. Dr. Kearney.
[11] _Pursuit of Knowledge_, vol. 2.
[12] The other three being Hales, Black, and Priestly.
[13] Highs or Hays was a reedmaker at Leigh, and in 1767 took up the
plan of attempting to spin by rollers running at different speeds,
previously invented by Lewis Paul in 1738. Highs employed Kay to carry
out his plans, from whom Arkwright obtained the requisite information.
[14] Mr. Lee, Mr. Kennedy, and Mr. George Duckworth.
[15] There is an unaccountable mistake of one year in Mr. Crompton's
age as engraved on his tombstone.
[16] Memoir, by Dr. T. S. Trail, _Encyclopædia, Britannica_.
[17] Youngest son of James Watt.
[18] Davy also reduced by voltaic electricity alumina, but aluminium
was first obtained in a perfectly separate state by Wohler in 1827.
[19] The meshes or apertures of the wire gauze ought not to be more
than one twenty-second of an inch in diameter.--_Brougham's Lives of
Philosophers._
[20] Called at first Georgium Sidus in honour of George the Third.
[21] This machinery was constructed by John Rennie.--_Mechanics'
Magazine_, Sept. 20, 1861.
[22] 20,000_l._, the reward offered for a chronometer sufficiently
exact to correct the longitude within certain limits required by Act of
Parliament.
[23] A very interesting account of Maudslay's introduction, &c., to
Bramah is given by Mr. Smiles in his 'Industrial Biography.' London
1863. P. 201-3.
[24] See 'Memoir of Bramah.'
[25] In particular may be mentioned Joseph Clement and Joseph Whitworth.
[26] See 'Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland,' by Sir John
Dalrymple, Bart.
[27] For fuller account of Miller and Symington's experiments see
'Memoir of Symington.'
[28] _Mechanics' Magazine_, September 20, 1861.
[29] _Lock's Essays on the Trade and Commerce, Manufactories and
Fisheries, of Scotland_, 1779. 3 vols.
[30] According to an article published in the _Mechanics' Magazine_,
Sept. 20, 1861, Mr. Rennie appears likewise to have attended the
collegiate academy at Perth. The above brief account of his early life
is given on the authority of a Memoir furnished by Mr. George Rennie,
F.R.S., and published in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_.
[31] By the invention and employment of what is now well known as the
travelling-crane.
[32] This peculiarity of Mr. Ronalds' apparatus is stated in full by
Mr. Highton, C.E., in his work on the 'Telegraph,' page 50. London,
John Weale.
[33] See also Patrick Miller.
[34] Named in honour of Lord Dundas's daughter, Lady Milton.
[35] The 'Comet.'
[36] John Clerk (Lord Eldin) pronounced the patent to be correctly
drawn up, and that no doubt existed of Mr. Symington's right to recover
damages from its invaders.
[37] Smiles's 'Lives of the Engineers.' London, 1861.
[38] Originally designed by Thomas Paine.
[39] Sixth Dissertation, by Dr. J. D. Forbes, F.R.S.--_Encyclopædia
Britannica_, Eighth Edition.
[40] The specification of this patent gives likewise the first mention
(we believe) on record of oscillating engines. Sir John Rennie,
F.R.S., in his address to the Institution of Civil Engineers, in 1846,
mentions the following passage:--"Even the objection of extra friction,
however, if tenable, is obviated _by the vibrating cylinder described
in Trevithick and Vivian's patent, in 1802_; patented by Whitty in
1813, and by Manby in 1821, by whom the first engines of the kind were
constructed."
[41] An eye-witness, who is still living, relates that on one of these
trials he saw Trevithick's steam-carriage proceeding at the rate of
twelve miles an hour.
[42] Mrs. Humblestone (1861) is now eighty-one years of age, and is
residing in the neighbourhood of Edgware Road.
[43] Sixth Dissertation, _Encyclopædia Britannica_, Eighth Edition.
[44] See _Practical Treatise on Railroads, &c._, by Luke Hebert,
London, 1837. Pages 21-4.--Mr. Francis Trevithick, who has spent
considerable time in ascertaining the facts regarding his father's
first locomotive, states that he has no doubt the wheels of this engine
were not in any way roughed: that he has often conversed with those who
made and worked the engine; that he has their copies of the original
drawings; and that in all these cases he never heard or saw anything
which indicated that the wheels were roughed.
[45] _Phil. Mag. and Annals of Philosophy_, August, 1831, in a letter
to Richard Taylor, F.S.A., by W. Jory Henwood, F.G.S.
[46] The late Michael Williams, M.P. for West Cornwall, was present
during this transaction, and afterwards remonstrated with Trevithick on
his folly.--The cheque offered to him has been stated by one gentleman
to have been for a far larger sum.
[47] During his residence at Glasgow, a Mason's Lodge were desirous of
possessing an organ, and Watt was asked to build it. He was totally
destitute of a musical ear, and could not distinguish one note from
the other, but he nevertheless accepted the offer; for having studied
the philosophical theory of music, he found that science would be a
substitute for want of ear. He commenced by building a small one for
Dr. Black, and then proceeded to the large one, in the building of
which he devised a number of novel expedients, such as indicators and
regulators of the strength of the blast, with various contrivances for
improving the efficiency of the stops. The qualities of this organ
when finished are said to have elicited the surprise and admiration
of musicians. During this period of his life Watt used likewise to
construct and repair guitars, flutes, and violins, and had the same
success as with his organ.--_Quarterly Review_, October, 1858.
[48] Preface to _Elements of Experimental Chemistry_, Eleventh Edition.
[49] _Life of Thomas Young, M.D., &c., by George Peacock_, page 143.
[50] Lord Brougham gives the date of Dr. Black's birth as 1721.--_Lives
of Philosophers._ Third Edition, 1855.
[51] _Mechanics' Magazine_, vol. v. (new series), page 276.
[52] After many appeals, a pension of 50_l._ a-year was granted by the
Crown to Richard Cort, the sole surviving son of Henry Cort.
[53] Discovered at the same time by Dr. Rutherford of Edinburgh.
[54] The Phlogistic Theory explained the phenomena of combustion by
supposing the existence of a hypothetical substance termed Phlogiston,
the union of which with bodies made them combustible, and the
disengagement of which was the occasion of combustion.
Transcriber's Notes.
Footnotes have been moved to the end of the book.
Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.
Bold type is shown thus: =shout=.
Small capitals have been capitalised.
Inconsistent hyphenation retained.
Obvious typos and printer errors have been corrected.
Old spelling forms are retained.
In the appendix 'RICHARD CORT' has been corrected to 'HENRY CORT'.